"The first victory we can claim is that our hearts are free of hatred. Hence we say to those who persecute us and who try to dominate us: ‘You are my brother. I do not hate you, but you are not going to dominate me by fear. I do not wish to impose my truth, nor do I wish you to impose yours on me. We are going to seek the truth together’. THIS IS THE LIBERATION WHICH WE ARE PROCLAIMING."
Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas (2002)

A
group of 7 Norwegian Members of Parliament has nominated the Cuban
Oswaldo Payá for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. – The Nobel Prize to
Cuba’s most important oppositional leader would be an important
contribution to peace and democracy for a people who have been denied
their fundamental human rights for far too long, the MPs write in their
nomination letter.

Through nearly two decades Oswaldo Payá has
been the leading figure in a peaceful struggle for basic human rights in
Cuba. Oswaldo Payá represents all Cubans who want a peaceful change
based on reconciliation and dialogue.

– We believe the Nobel Peace
Prize would send a strong signal to the Cuban government that it is time
for change, says Dagrun Eriksen, MP, deputy leader of the Christian
Democratic Party and one of the signatories.

Oswaldo Payá has
built his work on the conviction that all human beings have inviolable
rights. He believes that the right to freedom of speech is the basis on
which to solve all other problems in society. Only when the people
themselves can express their concerns, Cuba will be able to find its own
way out of the country’s challenges.

- Oswaldo Payá recognizes that
freedom of speech and respect for fundamental human rights is a
precondition for a peaceful development, says Jan Tore Sanner, MP,
deputy leader of the Conservative Party and one of the other
signatories.

Oswaldo Payá has consistently tried to work within
the frames of Cuban law, through petitions calling for the respect for
basic human rights. When the Varela project succeeded in collecting
enough signatures to set of a referendum in 2002, the Cuban regime’s
response, however, was to arrest 75 oppositional leaders, in what became
known as the Black Spring.

Last spring, Mr Sanner and Mrs
Eriksen took the initiative to form a support group for Cuban political
prisoners in the Norwegian Parliament, including MPs from all the
Norwegian parties. Following the release of more than 40 prisoners into
forced exile last summer, 19 of them wrote a letter to the group,
proposing that they nominate Oswaldo Payá for this year’s Nobel Peace
Prize.

- The support from the former prisoners of conscience shows
how Oswaldo Payá has succeeded in gathering different groups of
dissidents in dialogue and peaceful resistance, says Dagrun Eriksen.

Jan Tore Sanner was one of the nominators behind last year’s winner Liu Xiabo.

Payá
has continued to call for unity and dialogue between all Cubans, in and
outside the country. His National Dialogue program and All Cubans
Forum, have involved thousands of Cubans in discussions on proposals for
a peaceful change towards democracy. Payá is now again calling for a
referendum on basic human rights.